Tennis 05.05 - 11.05.2008, WTA (Berlin), ATP (Rome)

[engineer]

Bondarenko looked dead and buried after the 1st set, but suddenly came to life and Kuznetsova had no answers ... beautiful!

Time to find some more for the afternoon...

[engineer]

It seems that everyone is piling on Roddick and now he's odds on fav vs Bolleli. The Italian is the last hope of the hosts and like his chances to progress. Yes, he's played too much tennis recently, but he should find something extra for that tournament and the motivation will be really high. Close match, but I'll give Bolleli a shout.

Bolleli @2.04 - 3.5 pts

[engineer]

Lay Federrer 2:0 @1.33 - liab 2pts

Big Ivo should have gained much confidence and he's showing some nice abilities on the clay in Rome, two good victories and he's ready to face Bog Rog today. His serve is working even on that surface and I can see him pushing Roger to a tiebreak and winning it.

[rcgills]

Originally Posted by engineer

Bondarenko looked dead and buried after the 1st set, but suddenly came to life and Kuznetsova had no answers ... beautiful!

Time to find some more for the afternoon...

Nice work, Engineer

Nadal, Henin, Kuznetsova, Ferrer... some big names falling early this week

[Martens]

today,

Blake and Roddick to beat Wawrinka and Robredo respectively


Also Almagro to beat Djokovic is not out of question, and no surprise result at all in my eyes

see you, there isnt any unbeatable player these days, and i strongly beleive nadal should face giant and perhaps unsolved problems during french open, providing that draw helps of cource, if he meets some qualifiers, or some poor players in first 3 rounds, then whats remaining? and imagine in fourth round to meet a "surprise player" coming from nothing?
three matches to defend the title, thats is the grand slam normally for nadal and federer, thats why they defend quite easily the titles every year, because of the draw system, they normally reach quarterfinals after walks around the park


see you Roddick is my best bet today,

[rcgills]

Not so sure about Blake, Martens, but I'm on Roddick myself. H2H is 7-0 to Roddick, albeit no meetings since 2004, and one of them was on clay. Not sure Roddick should be the outsider, think he stands a decent chance, so I'm backing him partly as cover for my outright bet on Robredo.

Also on Almagro to beat Djokovic, and wouldn't entirely rule out a surprise in the Safina v Serena Williams game.

[rcgills]

Safina looks a decent bet to me for today. She's had some fantastic results this week (as has Dementieva, it's true), beating Henin and Serena Williams. Have only seen bits and pieces of her matches (end of the deciding set v Serena, first set v Azarenka), and she's been playing some fantastic stuff. She's always been a player I've had down as being a bit mentally fragile until now, but she showed no signs of that whatsoever against Serena in the QF.

H2H is 2-2, but Safina has taken both the clay meetings - one through retirement, but the other was a 6-1 6-1 hammering in Rome in 2006. Having said that, Dementieva took the last meeting between the two, returning the thrashing with a 6-1 6-0, although that was on carpet in Moscow.

I'd make Dementieva a marginal favourite for this one, she's certainly in excellent form herself, but given the way Safina's played this week I think she's got a much better chance than the odds suggest.

Lay Dementieva @ 1.71 to win 4pts

[engineer]

Nice one, RC!